Installation of fiber-optic transmission systems in multi-floor apartment and similar buildings can be challenging. For example, one issue is how to safely and sensibly store fiber optic cable that has been deployed throughout hallways of an apartment building while a telecommunications company waits for requests from individual residents of the building for delivery of that fiber-optic service into their individual apartments. This issue is addressed by the technique described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/428,813 filed Apr. 23, 2009 titled “Hidden Drop Storage Device,” assigned to the assignee of the instant application and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Another challenge emerges during deployment of cable between the floors in such a building, the inter-floor cable deployment normally occurring before the above-noted hallway cable deployment. For example, a problem can arise from attempting to store excess length, or slack, of pre-connectorized optical fiber bundles. Initially, fiber optic cable is brought from a telecommunications company (telco) located remotely from the apartment building to an indoor fiber distribution hub (IFDH) which can be located in one of several areas of the building such as, e.g., the basement or lobby. Connections are then made from the IFDH to each floor in the building. But, each floor can be a different distance away from the IFDH. If cable lengths were precisely tailored for each floor of a building, there would be no cable slack after deployment to each floor, but this approach would be very costly and time consuming. Standardized lengths can avoid those high costs, but using standardized lengths of pre-connectorized cable to connect from the IFDH to each floor shall result in substantial cable slack. Cable slack would then need to be stored permanently and safely on each floor. But, containers for storage of that slack in plain sight in hallways attracts tampering or vandalism and/or can be an ingress/egress hazard for occupants of, and visitors to, the building. Thus, there is a need for automatic storage, during installation, of optical cable slack of pre-connectorized and standard-sized cables that can be used to connect between floors of a multi-floor apartment building in a plug and play manner, where such storage is automatically accomplished in safe and sensible pre-assigned areas within the building set aside for that purpose.